Abstract
The feasibility of substituting the types of wood usually employed in the
making of guitars and violins was analyzed, but without comparing the
properties of involved materials as it is often reported; in this work,
the vibrational behavior of twelve guitars and three violins built with
alternative types of woods was compared to data of classical instruments
available in the literature. In the guitars here measured, the back plate
and ribs were not made from traditional woods; while in the violins, only
the top plate was made from an alternative type of wood. The results
showed that changing the wood of back plate and ribs does not radically
affect the typical mobility of a guitar; however, the expected mobility
for a violin was not clearly obtained substituting the wood of the top
plate. Thus it seems feasible to substitute the wood of back plate and
ribs in guitars without causing dramatic changes in their performance; in
contrast, a change of the wood type for top plate in violins seems
inadvisable unless the design of the top plate is modified to compensate
the differences between the woods.
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